Tone generating apparatus for sound imaging

ABSTRACT

A musical tone generating apparatus includes a position information generating device to generate musical instrument position information (PS) as plane coordinates  coordinate values. This information (PS) is stored in a memory device, or selectively determined by a manual operation. The apparatus also includes an information converting device to converter information (PS) into musical tone parameter control information (PD). This control information (PD) controls musical tone source signals (S 11,  S 12,  and S 13 ) to generate a sound field corresponding to the position of musical instruments arranged on a stage. This enables an operator to verify the musical instrument positions on a stage, thereby providing a feeling of being at a live performance.

This reissue application is a continuation of reissue application Ser.No. 08/345,531, filed on Nov. 28, 1994, now abandoned, which is acontinuation of reissue application Ser. No. 08/084,812, filed on Jun.29, 1993, now abandoned, which is a reissue application of U.S. Pat. No.5,027,689 granted Jul. 2, 1991.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a musical tone generating apparatusdesirable for an electronic musical instrument, an automatic musicalperformance apparatus, or the like, more particularly to a technique toreproduce a sound field corresponding to positions of musicalinstruments which are arranged on a stage of concert hall, jazz clubhouse, or the like.

2. Prior Art

In a conventional sound effect technique, sound effect controlinformation is preset in an apparatus so that the sound effect (e.g.reverberative effect) is desirably presented to a concert hall, jazzclub house, or the like. Then, assuming that a sound effect for aspecific concert hall is selected by an operator, or automaticallyselected, a specific sound effect is supplied of that concert hall basedon the sound effect control information, by which this specific soundeffect is converted to a musical tone signal.

Such conventional technique can present to some extent a desirable soundeffect for listening to a performance, however, a sound field cannot beproduced corresponding to respective positions of the musicalinstruments which are arranged on the stage of the concert hall, thatis, the conventional technique cannot present a feeling of being at alive performance. In other words, the feeling given by the conventionaltechnique is different from the feelings related to an actual soundfield (related to a position of the sound image, a frequency componentof the musical tone, a magnitude of the sound effect, or the like) sincemany types of the musical instruments are arranged at various positionson the stage of the concert hall, in case of a live performance.Accordingly, the conventional apparatus cannot present an accuratefeeling of the sound field.

On the other hand, it is well known that an electronic musicalinstrument can have several speakers to reproduce a performance with theposition of the sound image and sound effect varied by the adjustment ofvolume controls, switches, or the like, in which these volume controlsand switches are mounted on a panel of the apparatus.

However, this is very complicated in that many select elements such asthe volume controls and switches must be adjusted to reproduce adesirable feeling of the sound field, especially it is not easy toadjust a sound field based on an imagination of the position of themusical instruments as if these musical instruments are arranged on thestage of the concert hall. Up until recently, the sound effect controlinformation has been thus preset in the apparatus to reproduce the soundeffect corresponding to a stage of the concert hall, requiring a greatdeal of the information to be preset in the apparatus, and an apparatusof highly complicated construction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a musicaltone generating apparatus which can reproduce sound fields by a simpleoperation corresponding to musical instruments as if these musicalinstruments are arranged on a stage of a concert hall, or the like, soas to obtain the feeling of being at a live performance.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a musical tonegenerating apparatus which can readily verify each position of themusical instruments as if these musical instruments are arranged on astage.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a musical tonegenerating apparatus which can provide a simple operation to reproducethe sound fields of musical instruments on respective stages.

In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tonegenerating apparatus comprising: a position information generatingapparatus for generating musical instrument position informationcorresponding to positions of the musical instruments arranged on astage of a performance place; an information converting apparatus forconverting the musical instrument position information into musical toneparameter control information; a sound source apparatus for generating amusical tone source signal having a tone color corresponding to each ofthe musical instruments arranged on the stage; a musical tone controlapparatus for controllably generating musical tone output signalscorresponding to the musical tone parameter control information relativeto the position of the musical instruments by receiving the musical tonesource signal from the sound source apparatus; and an output apparatusfor generating a musical tone from a plurality of output channels byreceiving the musical tone output signal from the musical tone controlapparatus so that a sound field is reproduced corresponding to theposition of the musical instruments arranged on the stage.

The operator can set the position information of the musical instrumentsin the position information generating apparatus, even the apparentposition of the musical instruments can be moved to the desiredposition.

The musical tone signal output can be read from a storage apparatus, orread from musical instruments.

In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tonegenerating apparatus comprising: a select apparatus for selecting astage from among performance places; a storage apparatus for storingmusical instrument position information which indicates a position ofmusical instruments arranged on a stage, and tone color indicationinformation for indicating a tone color corresponding to each of themusical instruments; a reading apparatus for reading the musicalinstrument position information and the tone color indicationinformation from the storage apparatus, in which both the musicalinstrument position information and the tone color indicated informationare selected by the select apparatus; an information convertingapparatus for converting the musical instrument position informationinto a musical tone parameter control information corresponding to avalue of the plane coordinates and a variable which is determined by thevalue of the plane coordinates; a sound source apparatus for generatinga musical tone source signal having a tone color corresponding to eachof the musical instruments arranged on the stage; a musical tone controlapparatus for controllably generating musical tone output signals inresponse to the musical tone parameter control information relative tothe position of the musical instruments by receiving the musical tonesource signal from the sound source apparatus; and an output apparatusfor generating musical tone from a plurality of output channels byreceiving the musical tone output signal from the musical tone controlapparatus so that a sound field is reproduced corresponding to theposition of the musical instruments arranged on the stage.

The musical instrument position information can be in the form of presetinformation corresponding to a predetermined stage as well as tone colorindication information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a musical tonegenerating apparatus of an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the lay-out of select switches;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the lay-out of musical instrumentsarranged on a stage;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the control data lay-out of a memory;

FIG. 5(A) to FIG. 5(D) are diagrams showing the information memorized inROM 18;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing parameter control circuit

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing reverberative circuit 64;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing a main routine of the musical tonegenerating apparatus;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a subroutine of stage select switch HSS;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a subroutine for initializing soundimages;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a subroutine for detecting a movement ofsound images; and

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing a subroutine for setting a feature ofthe information.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention is described byreference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a circuit diagram of an electronic musical instrument inaccordance with an embodiment, in which the electronic musicalinstrument is controlled by a microcomputer to generate a musical tone.

In FIG. 1, major components are connected to bus 10. These componentsare composed of keyboard circuit 12, a group of select elements 14, CPU(central processing unit) 16, ROM (read only memory) 18, RAM (randomaccess memory) 20, a group of registers 22, floppy disk unit 24, displaypanel interface 26, touch panel interface 28, sound source interface 30,and externally input interface 32.

Keyboard circuit 12 detects keyboard information corresponding torespective keys of the keyboards which are composed of an upperkeyboard, a lower keyboard, and a pedal keyboard.

The group of select elements 14 comprises select elements forcontrolling a musical tone and for controlling a performance, and forcontrolling other functions, in which each select element detects thekeyboard information. These select elements are described later byreference to FIG. 2.

CPU 16 executes many types of control processes to generate a musicaltone in accordance with a control program stored in ROM 18. ROM 18 alsostores musical tone parameter control information which is describedlater by reference to FIG. 5. The control processes are described laterby reference to FIG. 8 to FIG. 12.

RAM 20 stores display control data which is read from floppy disk unit24. This display control data is used for a certain stage.

The group of registers 22 is used for the control processes when CPU 16executes the control program.

Floppy disk unit 24 is used for reading and writing the display controldata from and to a floppy disk which stores many different types ofdisplay control data for use in a plurality of performance place. Thedetails of the above are described later by reference to FIG. 4.

Display panel interface 26 and touch panel interface 28 are connected todisplay panel 34A and touch panel 34B, respectively, in which bothdisplay panel 34A and touch panel 34B are incorporated in musicalinstrument position setting device 34. Accordingly, display panelinterface 26 transfers display data DS to display panel 34A, and touchpanel interface 28 receives musical instrument position data PS fromtouch panel 34B corresponding to the touch position of the keyboardwhich is detected by touch panel 34B. Musical instrument positionsetting device 34 is described later by reference to FIG. 3.

Sound source interface 30 transfers sound source control information TSto distributing circuit 36, in which sound source control information TSis composed of key-on and key-off signals corresponding to the operationof the keyboard; performance information such as key-data (tone pitchdata) corresponding to a depressed key; musical tone parameter controlinformation PD read from ROM 18; and tone color indicated data TS andreverberation control data RVD both read from RAM 20.

Externally input interface 32 receives performance informationcorresponding to the operation of the keyboard, and performanceinformation read from a memory device incorporated in the electronicmusical instrument. This input performance information is supplied todistributing circuit 36 through sound source interface 30, together witha performance information from keyboard circuit 12.

Distributing circuit 36 generates first sound source control informationS1, second sound source control information S2, and third sound sourcecontrol information S3 depending on the type of the musical instrumentsindicated by sound source control information TS. The first, second, andthird sound source control information S1, S2, and S3 is supplied tofirst sound source control circuit (TG1) 38, second sound source controlcircuit (TG2) 40, and third sound source control circuit (TG3) 42,respectively. In the addition, distributing circuit 36 receives musicaltone parameter control information PD and reverberation control dataRVD, both also being contained in sound source control information TS,and this musical tone parameter control information PD and reverberationcontrol data RVD is directly supplied to parameter control circuit 44.

In the sound source control information described in the above, firstsound source control information S1 represents tone color indicationdata corresponding to musical instrument 1 (e.g. piano) and performanceinformation based on the upper keyboard in operation, second soundsource control information S2 represents other tone color indicationdata corresponding to musical instrument 2 (e.g. violin) and performanceinformation based on the lower keyboard, and third sound source controlinformation S3 represents other tone color indication data correspondingto musical instrument 3 (e.g. bass) and a performance information basedon the pedal keyboard.

In the above description, other performance information can be suppliedfrom an electronic musical instrument through externally input interface32, sound source interface 30, and distributing circuit 36, instead ofthe performance information input from keyboard circuit 12, based on theupper keyboard, lower keyboard, and pedal keyboard, so that varioustypes of electronic musical instruments can be used to play an ensemble,which can even be an automatic performance ensemble.

First sound source control circuit TG1 therefore supplies digitalmusical tone signals S11 to parameter control circuit 44 correspondingto first sound source control information S1, second sound sourcecontrol circuit TG2 supplies digital musical tone signal S12 toparameter control circuit 44 corresponding to second sound sourcecontrol information S2, and similarly, third sound source controlcircuit TG3 supplies digital musical tone signal S13 to parametercontrol circuit 44 corresponding to third sound source controlinformation S3.

Parameter control circuit 44 thus controls digital musical tone signalsS11, S12, and S13 based on musical tone parameter control informationPD, and generates a reverberative effect signal based on reverberationcontrol data RVD. Parameter control circuit 44 then converts suchdigital musical tone signals S11, S12, and S13 into analog musical tonesignals AS(R) for the right channel, and AS(L) for the left channel by adigital-analog converter incorporated in parameter control circuit 44.The details of parameter control circuit 44 are described later byreference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

Musical tone signal AS(R) and musical tone signal AS(L) are supplied toright speaker 48R and left speaker 48L through amplifier 46R andamplifier 46L to generate musical tone, respectively.

FIG. 2 shows a lay-out of the select elements, each of which is relatedto this embodiment, and each of which is arranged in the group of selectelements 14.

In FIG. 2, performance mode switch PMS is used for indicating a normalperformance mode, that is, a manual performance (or an automaticperformance) can be carried out without reproducing the sound field ofthe selected concert hall when it is depressed. After depression,light-emitting element PML is turned on, in which this light-emittingelement PML is mounted beside performance mode switch PMS.

Hall select switch HSS comprises N switches, which are laterallyarranged in the panel. Adjacent to the N switches are respectivelight-emitting elements HSL. Accordingly, when one of the hall selectswitches HSS is depressed to select a particular concert hall. Acorresponding light-emitting element HSL is turned on. The manualperformance (or the automatic performance) is then carried out withreproduction of a sound field for the concert hall which is selected bythe hall select switch HSS.

On the other hand, when the previously depressed hall select switch HSScorresponding to the turned on light-emitting element HSL is againdepressed the light-emitting element HSL is turned off, andlight-emitting element PML is also turned off to terminate the manualperformance.

FIG. 3 shows a plan view of musical instrument position setting device34 which comprises a transparent touch panel 34B having matrix-arrangedswitches, and display panel 34A arranged behind touch panel 34B.

Display panel 34A, for example, has a hall symbol HSY corresponding to astage of performance place such as a concert hall, hall name HNM such as“HALL1”, musical instrument display frame FLM, musical instrument symbolISY, and musical instrument name INM. Musical instrument display frameFLM is displayed in touch panel 34B having a rectangular shape, andmusical instrument symbol ISY and musical instrument name INM aredisplayed in each musical instrument display frame FLM. In FIG. 3, hallname HNM is displayed at the left-top corner of display panel 34A as“HALL1”, musical instrument symbol ISY is displayed at the bottom-leftof the display panel as “Pp” for a piano and musical instrument name INMis displayed in musical instrument display frame FLM as “piano”.Similarly, a symbol “Pv” is displayed at the bottom-middle of thedisplay panel as “violin” which is also displayed in the musicalinstrument display frame, and a symbol “Pb” is displayed at thetop-right of the display panel as “bass” which is also displayed in themusical instrument display frame.

Touch panel 34B has rectangular coordinates which are represented by acharacter W corresponding to the width of the stage of a concert hall,and by a character H corresponding to the depth thereof. The origin ofthe coordinates (P₀(0,0) is set at the top-left corner of touch panel34B, the y axis is set in a vertical direction and the x axis is set ina horizontal direction. Accordingly, the position of the piano isindicated by P_(p)(x₁, y₁), similarly, the position of the violin isindicated by P_(v)(x₂, y₂), and the position of the bass is indicated byP_(b)(x₃, y₃).

After roughly inputting the position of all musical instruments indisplay panel 34A, the positions can be adjusted by touching a fingerwithin musical instrument display frame FLM in touch panel 34Bcorresponding to, for example, the piano position, and moving the fingerto a desired position to set the piano in position. At this time,musical instrument display frame FLM, musical instrument name INM, andmusical instrument symbol ISY move with the movement of the fingercontact point. When the finger stops moving, the display position of thepiano is finally set in touch panel 34B. Similarly, the position of theviolin and bass can also be set in touch panel 34B in the same manner asdescribed above. Thus, the position of the musical instruments can beselectively and readily arranged as if on the stage of a concert hall bytouching and moving the finger over the surface of the touch panel 34B.

FIG. 4 shows a format of display control data stored in a floppy disk.The display control data is composed of hall index data and hall data.Hall index data is composed of hall 1 (e.g. a small concert hall), hall2 (e.g. a large concert hall), hall 3 (e.g. an outdoor stage), and hallN (e.g. a jazz club house). Hall data is composed of hall characteristicdata and musical instrument data. This hall data is described later.

For example, when hall 1 is selected by one of the hall select switchesHSS, floppy disk unit 24 reads the display control data from the floppydisk, and then writes it into RAM 20 with the format shown in FIG. 4.

The hall data has identification data ID followed by hall characteristicdata and musical instrument data. This hall data is used for hall 1. Thehall characteristic data is composed of a value of bytes K₀ occupied byhall name data HNMD, a value of bytes L₀ occupied by hall symbol dataHSYD, a value of bytes M₀ occupied by reverberation control data RVD, aswell as actual hall name data HNMD indicated by a hall name, actual hallsymbol data HSYD indicated by a hall symbol, and actual reverberationcontrol data RVD which controls the reverberative effect. A term of HAD₀represents a head address of RAM 20 when the hall characteristic data iswritten into RAM 20. Corresponding to the head address HAD₀, hall namedata HNMD, hall symbol data HSYD, and reverberation control data RVD areread from RAM 20 depending on the respective value of bytes occupied bythe respective HNMD, HSYD, and RVD.

Musical instrument data is composed of data of musical instrument 1(e.g. a piano), data of musical instrument 2 (e.g. a violin), and dataof musical instrument 3 (e.g. a bass).

Data of musical instrument 1 is composed of data which indicates a valueof bytes K₁ occupied by musical instrument data INMD, data whichindicates a value of bytes L₁ occupied by musical instrument symbol dataISYD, and data which indicates a value of bytes M₁ occupied by tonecolor indicated data TSD, as well as actual musical instrument name dataINMD, actual musical instrument symbol data ISYD, actual tone colorindicated data which indicates a tone color (e.g. the tone color of thepiano) of the musical instrument, and data which indicates the musicalinstrument position in the x direction (x₁), and data which indicatesthe musical instrument position in the y direction (y₁). A term of HAD₁represents a head address of RAM 20 when the data of musical instrument1 is written into RAM 20. Corresponding to the head address HAD₁,musical instrument name data INMD, musical instrument symbol data ISYD,and tone color indication data TSD are read from RAM 20 depending on therespective number of bytes occupied by the respective INMD, ISYD, andTSD data; and musical instrument position data PS (x₁, y₁) is read fromRAM 20, in which X axis component x₁ is stored in storage area X1, and Yaxis component y₁ is stored in storage area Y1.

While data of musical instruments 2 and 3 are handled similarly to dataof musical instrument 1 described in the above, therefore details areomitted for the sake of simplicity.

With the terms HAD₂ and HAD₃ representing head addresses data of musicalinstruments 2 and 3 is read from RAM 20, as well as musical instrumentposition data (x₂, y₂) and (x₃, y₃) indicates the position of musicalinstruments 2 and 3, respectively. This musical instrument position data(x₂, y₂) and (x₃, y₃) is not shown in FIG. 4, but X axis components x₂and x₃ are stored in storage area X2 and X3, and Y axis components Y₂and y₃ are stored in storage area Y2 and Y3, respectively. These (x₂,y₂) and (x₃, y₃) components indicate musical instrument position dataread from RAM 20, but not musical instrument position data PStransferred from musical instrument position setting device 34.

FIG. 5(A) to FIG. 5(D) show five types of musical tone parameter controlinformation PD stored in respective memory portions of ROM 18.

One of the memory stores information as shown in FIG. 5(A). Thisinformation is composed of a normalized value P_(y) which indicates thevalue of the y coordinate of a musical instrument on the stage of thehall, and a first multiplication constant MP1 which determines theposition of a sound image in a y direction of the stage. The firstmultiplication constant MP1 is directly proportional to the normalizedvalue P_(y). Thus, when P_(y)=1 and MP1=1, a sound image is producedcorresponding to a musical instrument positioned at the most front sideof the stage.

Another memory stores information as shown in FIG. 5(B). Thisinformation is composed of the normalized value P_(y) which indicatesthe value of the y coordinate of a musical instrument on the stage ofthe hall, and a fourth multiplication constant MP4 which determines themagnitude of a reverberative effect in the y direction of the stage. Thefourth multiplication constant MP4 is inversely proportional to thenormalized value P_(y). Thus, when P_(y)=0 and MP4=1, a reverberativeeffect can be produced corresponding to a musical instrument positionedat the most rear side of the stage.

Another memory stores information as shown in FIG. 5(C). Thisinformation is composed of a normalized value P_(y) which indicates thevalue of the y coordinate of a musical instrument, and a filteringconstant CF which determines a cut-off frequency of a low-pass filter.The filtering constant CF is directly proportional to the normalizedvalue P_(y). When P_(y)=1 and CF=f_(s)/2 (f_(s) is a sampling frequencyfor digital musical tone signals), a sound barrier spreads to a hightone corresponding to a musical instrument positioned at the most frontside of the stage.

Another memory stores information as shown in FIG. 5(D). Thisinformation is composed of a normalized value P_(x) which indicates thevalue of the x coordinate of a musical instrument, and second and thirdmultiplication constants MP2 and MP3 which determine the position of asound image in the direction to the right and left of the stage. Themultiplication constant MP2 is directly proportional to the normalizedvalue P_(x) as shown by “L₂”, while the multiplication constant MP3 isinversely proportional to the normalized value P_(x) as shown by “L₃”.Thus, when P_(x)=1, MP2=1, and MP3=0, a sound image is producedcorresponding to a musical instrument which is positioned at the rightmost side of the stage. When P_(x)=0, MP2=0, and MP3=1, a sound image isproduced corresponding to a musical instrument which is positioned atthe left most side of the stage.

On the other hand, with the normalized value P_(y) indicated by theposition of a musical instrument along the y coordinate, and thenormalized value P_(x) indicated by the position of a musical instrumentalong the x coordinate, both of the values P_(y) and P_(x) aredetermined from the musical instrument position data (e.g. indicated byx₁ and y₁) read from RAM 20, and musical instrument position data PStransferred from musical instrument position setting device 34.

FIG. 6 shows parameter control circuit 4. This parameter control circuit44 comprises three parameter controllers CN1, CN2, and CN3. Theseparameter controllers CN1, CN2, and CN3 receive digital musical tonesignals S11, S12, and S13 from first sound source control circuit TG1,second sound source control circuit TG2, and third sound source controlcircuit TG3, respectively. Since parameter controllers CN1, CN2, and CN3are identical in construction, only parameter controller CN1 isdescribed in this embodiment.

Digital musical tone signal S11 is supplied to multiplier 50 to bemultiplied by first multiplication constant MP1. A multiplication valueoutput from multiplier 50 is supplied to low-pass filter 52 to control afrequency corresponding to filtering constant CF.

A value output from low-pass filter 52 is supplied to multiplier 54 tobe multiplied by second multiplication constant MP2, then supplied tomultiplier 56 to be multiplied by third multiplication constant MP3, andalso supplied to multiplier 58 to be multiplied by fourth multiplicationconstant MP4.

Multiplied values output from multipliers 54 and 56 are supplied toadders 60 and 62, respectively, while a multiplied value output frommultiplier 58 is supplied to reverberation circuit 64.

FIG. 7 shows reverberation circuit 64. Input data IN is supplied toadder ADD, and data output from adder ADD is supplied to delay circuitDL. Data output from delay circuit DL is supplied to multiplier MPL, andthen data output from multiplier MPL is supplied to adder ADD as afeedback. Delay control data RVD₁ which is a part of reverberationcontrol data RVD is supplied to delay circuit DL to set a delay time,and multiplication constant data RVD₂ is supplied to multiplier MPL tobe multiplied by the data output from delay circuit DL, so that outputdata OUT is output from delay circuit DL with a reverberative effectassigned.

Output data OUT is supplied to both adders 60 and 62 to be added to thedata output from multipliers 54 and 56, respectively.

Data output from adder 60 is digital musical tone signal SR₁ for theright channel, which is supplied to adder 66. While data output fromadder 62 is digital musical tone signal SL₁ for the left channel, whichis supplied to adder 70.

Digital musical tone signals SR₂ and SR₃ for the right channel are alsosupplied from parameter controllers CN2 and CN3 to adder 66 to adddigital musical tone signal SR₁. In addition, digital musical tonesignals SL₂ and SL₃ for the left channel are supplied from parametercontrollers CN2 and CN3 to adder 70 to add to digital musical tonesignal SL₁.

Added data output from adder 66 is converted into analog musical tonesignal AS(R) for the right channel by D-A converter 68 to output to aspeaker. Added data output from adder 70 is also converted into analogmusical tone signal AS(L) for the left channel by D-A converter 72 tooutput to a speaker.

According to FIG. 6, in multiplier 50, the sound image can be moved inthe y direction of the stage shown in FIG. 3, when first multiplicationconstant MP1 is changed with respect to normalized value P_(y) whichindicates the y coordinate of the musical instrument as shown in FIG.5(A).

In low-pass filter 52, the fine variation of tone color can be producedcorresponding to the position of the musical instrument in the ydirection of the stage, when filtering constant CF is changed withrespect to normalized value P_(y) which indicates the y coordinate ofthe musical instrument as shown in FIG. 5(C).

In multipliers 54 and 56, a sound image can be moved in the x directionof the stage as shown in FIG. 3, when second and third multiplicationconstants MP2 and MP3 are changed with respect to normalized value P_(x)which indicates the x coordinate of the musical instrument as shown inFIG. 5(D).

In multiplier 58, the magnitude of reverberative effect can be adjustedin the y direction of the stage, when fourth multiplication constant MP4is changed with respect to normalized value P_(y) which indicates the ycoordinate of the musical instrument as shown in FIG. 5(B).

In this embodiment, adders 60, 62, 66, and 70 electrically mix inputswith adjusted musical tone signals, and output musical tone signals totwo speakers. However, several musical tones can be mixed in the airspace by using several speakers, and in this case the number of adderscan be reduced.

The group of registers 22 is described next for use in this embodiment.

(1) Mode register MOD: this register stores from “0” to “2”, “0” for anormal performance mode, “1” for a musical instrument position settingmode, and “2” for a performance mode having a reproduction of a soundfield (referred to as a reproduction performance mode in the following).

(2) Switch number register SNO: this register stores a switch number (1to N) of hall select switch HSS when hall select switch HSS is turnedon.

(3) Switch flags SFL₁ to SFL_(n): these registers set “1” to a flagcorresponding to a hall select switch HSS (1 to N) when hall selectswitch HSS is turned on.

(4) Head address registers ADR₀ to ADR₃: these registers are for storinghead addresses HAD₀ to HAD₃ shown in FIG. 4.

(5) x coordinate register P_(x): this register is for storing thenormalized value P_(x) which indicates the x coordinate.

(6) y coordinate register P_(y): this register is for storing thenormalized value P_(y) which indicates the y coordinate.

(7) Control variable register i: this register is for storing a controlvariable i.

FIG. 8 shows the flow chart of a main routine which is started byturning on a power switch.

In step 80, an initialize routine is executed to initialize eachregister.

In step 82, a “0” is set in mode register MOD for the normal performancemode. This makes light-emitting element PML turn on.

In step 84, the process decides whether mode register MOD is “0” or “2”(the performance mode). When this decision is “Y”, the process moves tostep 86, otherwise it moves to step 94.

In step 86, the process decides whether keyboard circuit 12 has a key-onevent of the keyboard or not. When this decision is “Y”, the processmoves to step 88, other wise it moves to step 90.

In step 88, the process executes a tone generation. This is, key-onsignal and key data corresponding to a depressed key are supplied tokeyboard circuit 12 to generate a musical tone, then the process movesto step 90.

In step 90, the process decides whether keyboard circuit 12 has akey-off event of the keyboard or not. When this decision is “Y”, theprocess moves to step 92, otherwise it moves to step 94.

In step 92, the process executes a reduction of sound, that is, thekey-off signal and the key data for a released key are supplied to thesound source corresponding to the keyboard which made the key-off eventto start reduction of the musical tone corresponding to the releasedkey, then the process moves to step 94.

In step 94, the process decides whether hall select switch HSS has anon-event or not. When this decision is “Y”, the process moves to step96, otherwise it moves to step 98.

In step 96, a subroutine is executed for the ON-state of hall selectswitch HSS, then the process moves to step 98. Details of thissubroutine are described later by reference to FIG. 9.

In step 98, another process is executed such as a setting process of atone color, tone volume, and the like, then the process moves back tostep 84 to repeat the processes.

FIG. 9 shows the flow chart of a subroutine when one of the hall selectswitches HSS is turned on.

In step 100, a number n of hall select switch HSS is set in switchnumber register SNO when one of hall select switch HSS is turned on,then the process moves to step 102.

In step 102, the process decides whether mode register MOD is “2”(reproducing performance mode) or not. When this decision is “Y”, theprocess moves to step 104, otherwise it moves to step 108.

In step 104, the process decides whether switch flag SFL_(n) is “1” (thesound field for reproduction for a stage corresponding to a value n setin switch number register SNO) or not. When this decision is “Y”, theprocess moves to step 106, otherwise it moves to step 108.

In step 106, a “0” is set in mode register MOD, and the light-emittingelement PML is turned on. A “0” is set in respective switch flags SFL₁to SFL_(n) to turn light-emitting element HSL. Afterwards, the processreturns to the main routine shown in FIG. 8. In this case, the hallselect switch HSS corresponding to a value is turned on, to reproduce asound field corresponding to a value n, and the reproduction mode iscanceled to return to the normal performance mode.

In step 108, a “1” is set in mode register MOD, and light-emittingelement PML is turned off, then the process moves to step 110, and ischanged from the normal performance mode to the musical instrumentposition setting mode when the process has come from step 102, and ischanged from the reproducing performance mode to the musical instrumentposition setting mode when the process has come from step 104.

In step 110, a “1” is set in switch flag SFL_(n) to turn light-emittingelement HSL on. A “0” is also set in switch flags SFL except for switchflag SFL_(n) to turn respective light-emitting elements HSL of, thestage is thus indicated by the light-emitting element corresponding toone of the hall select switch HSS which is turned on, then the processmoves to step 112.

In step 112, a display control data for the selected stage is writteninto RAM 20 from the floppy disk, then the process moves to step 114.

In step 114, head addresses HAD₀ to HAD₃ are set in head addressregisters ADR₀ to ADR₃, then the process moves to step 116 as shown inFIG. 4.

In step 116, an initialized display is indicated in display panel 34A,then the process moves to step 118. That is, hall name data HNMD andhall symbol data HSYD are read from RAM 20, in which the data is a partof the hall characteristic data corresponding to the selected stage,then hall name HNM and hall symbol HSY are indicated in a predeterminedposition of display panel 34A based on that data. When hall name dataHNMD is read from RAM 20, a “3” is added to head address HAD₀ which isset in address register ADR₀ to indicate the head address, and then hallname data HNMD is read depending on a value of bytes K₀. When hallsymbol data HSYD is read from RAM 20, the value of bytes K₀ is added toaddress “HAD₀+3” to indicate the head address of hall symbol data HSYD,hall symbol data HSYD is therefore read depending on a value of bytesL₀.

After displaying hall name HNM and hall symbol HSY, musical instrumentname data INMD, musical instrument symbol data ISYD, and musicalinstrument position data (e.g. each value of the x₁ and y₁ values) areread from RAM 20, and display data for a musical instrument is thereforeformed consisting of the musical instrument name INM and musicalinstrument symbol ISY, both surrounded by musical instrument displayframe FLM indicated in display panel 34A.

A plurality of the display data for the next two musical instruments isalso formed by similar data as described in the above and indicated indisplay panel 34A.

Reading the musical instrument data from RAM 20 is described in the caseof a musical instrument 1. The head address is indicated by adding a “3”to head address HAD₁ which is set in address register ADR₁ to readmusical instrument name data INMD corresponding to the value of bytesK₁. This value of bytes Kis added to “HAD₁+3” to indicate the headaddress of musical instrument symbol data ISYD, then this musicalinstrument symbol data ISYD is read depending on the value of bytes L₁.Each value of the bytes L₁ to M₁ (for tone color indicated by tone colorindication data TSD) is also added to an address “HAD₁+3+K₁” to indicatethe head address of the musical instrument position data, then eachvalue of the x₁ and y₁ is, in turn, read from RAM 20.

In step 118, a sound image initialization is executed as shown in FIG.10 which is described later.

In step 120, a sound image movement described by reference to FIG. 11 isexecuted, then the process returns to the main routine shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 shows the sound image initialization.

In step 122, reverberation control data RVD is read from RAM 20 to setin reverberation circuit 64. When reverberation control data RVD is readfrom RAM 20, a value of bytes L₀ of hall symbol data HSYD is added toaddress “HAD₀+3+K₀” to indicate the head address of reverberationcontrol data RVD, then reverberation control data RVD is read dependingon the value of bytes of M₀, then the process moves to step 124.

In step 124, a “1” is added to control variable register i, then theprocess moves to step 126.

In step 126, the process decides whether the value of control variableregister i is greater than “3” or not. When this decision is “N”, theprocess moves to step 128, otherwise it returns to the subroutine shownin FIG. 9.

In step 128, tone color indicated data TSD for musical instrument i fromRAM 20 is set in sound source control circuit TGi for a number i, wherei is any integer. When tone color indicated data TSD is read from RAM20, a value of bytes L₁ corresponding to musical instrument symbol dataISYD is added to the address “HAD₁+3+K₁” to indicate the head address oftone color indicated data TSD, then this tone color indicated data TSDis read depending on a value of bytes M₁, then the process moves to step130.

In step 130, a characteristic setting of the musical instrument isexecuted by a subroutine which is described later by reference to FIG.12, then the process moves to step 132.

In step 132, control variable register i is incremented by “1”, then theprocess returns to step 126 to repeat step 126 to step 132 until controlvariable i is greater than “3”.

When control variable i is greater than “3”, the tone color setting andcharacteristic setting processes for the three musical instruments areterminated.

FIG. 11 shows a subroutine for the sound image movement.

In step 140, the process decides whether musical instrument positiondata (the x and y coordinates) is indicated in touch panel 34B, or not.When this decision is “Y”, the process moves to step 142, otherwise itmoves to step 158.

In step 142, a “1” is added to control variable register i, then theprocess moves to step 144.

In step 144, the process decides whether each of the values for the xand y coordinates is indicated within musical instrument display frameFLM or not. When this decision is “Y”, then the process moves to step146, otherwise it moves to step 154.

In step 146, each value of the x and y coordinates is written intostorage area Xi and Yi of RAM 20, respectively, then the process movesto step 148.

In step 148, the display position of a musical instrument i is changedto a desired position in display panel 34A corresponding t each value ofthe Xi and Yi coordinates, then the process moves to step 150.

In step 150, the characteristic setting is executed by a subroutinewhich is described later by reference to FIG. 12, then the process movesto step 152.

In step 152, the process decides whether the musical instrument positiondata is indicated in touch panel 34B or not. When this decision is “Y”,then the process returns to step 146 to repeat step 146 to step 152.Thus, each value of the Xi and Yi coordinates can be changed in responseto a touch position of the finger while the finger keeps touching touchpanel 34B and moves to another position in touch panel 34B to set adesired position of a musical instrument in display panel 34B. When thedecision of step 152 is “N”, the process moves to step 140 to repeat theprocesses described in the above.

After setting the position of musical instrument 1, if the finger thentouches touch panel 34B to position musical instrument 2, the decisionof step 144 is “N” so that each value of the x and y coordinates isindicated in musical instrument display frame FL of musical instrument2. The process therefore moves to step 154.

In step 154, control variable register i is incremented by “1”, then theprocess moves to step 156.

In step 156, the process decides whether control variable i is greaterthan “3” or not. When this decision is “N”, the process returns to step144.

On returning to step 144, the decision is “Y” so that each value of thex and y coordinates is indicated in musical instrument display frame FLMfor musical instrument 2. The position of musical instrument 2 can thenbe established by executing step 146 to step 152.

Afterwards, if the finger touches touch panel 34B to position musicalinstrument 3, at this time, the decision of step 144 is “N” so steps 154to 156 have to be executed twice after executing step 140 to step 142,the process moves to step 146. Thus, the position of musical instrument3 can be established by step 146 to step 152.

In touch panel 34B, when the finger touches an area which is not a partof a musical instrument display frame FLM, the decision of step 156 is“Y”, after executing step 154 three times, then the process returns tostep 140.

On the other hand, when the finger does not touch panel 34B, thedecision of step 140 is “N”, then the process moves to step 158.

In step 158, the process decides whether performance mode switch PMSindicates an on-event or not. When this decision is “N”, then theprocess returns to step 140, otherwise it moves to step 160.

Accordingly, if after or before setting the position at least one ofthree musical instruments 1 to 3, performance mode switch PMS is turnedon, the decision of step 158 is then “Y”, and the process moves to step160.

In step 160, a “2” is set in mode register MOD to turn light-emittingelement PML on. Thus, the performance mode is changed from the musicalinstrument position setting mode to the performance reproducing mode,which enables manual performance (or automatic performance) withreproduction of the sound field corresponding to the selected stage.

The musical instrument position established in steps 146 to 152 (each ofthe revised Xi and Yi values) can be transferred to a floppy disk drivenby floppy disk unit 24. FIG. 12 shows a subroutine of the characteristicsetting. In step 170, normalized value P_(x) which is the result ofdividing the value of the x coordinate stored in the storage area Xi bythe length W shown in FIG. 3 is set in the storage area Px. In addition,normalized value P_(y) which is the result of dividing the value of they coordinate stored in storage area Yi by the length H in FIG. 3 is setin the storage area Py.

In step 172, each value of the P_(x) and P_(y) value (contents of Px andPy) is converted into five types of musical tone parameter controlinformation PD (first multiplications constant MP1 to fourthmultiplication constant MP4, and filtering constant CF), then aplurality of the data is set in each of parameter controllers CN1, CN2,and CN3 shown in FIG. 6.

As a result, in FIG. 10, the sound field of the selected stage isreproduced in response to the data read from RAM 20. In FIG. 11, thesound field of the selected stage is reproduced in accordance with thepositions of musical instruments set by musical instrument positionsetting device 34.

In this embodiment, touch panel 34B is used for indicating the musicalinstrument position, but select elements such as a variable resister, aswitch, and the like can be used instead of touch panel 34B.

Also in this embodiment, the stage is selected in combination with themusical instruments, but the stage can also be selected separately fromthe musical instruments.

In addition, in the case where this invention is used for an aqueousperformance, the musical instrument position information can be storedin a storage area together with a plurality of performance informationso that a sound image can be moved.

The preferred embodiment described herein is illustrative andrestrictive; the scope of the invention is indicated by the appendedclaims and all variations which fall within the claims are intended tobe embraced therein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A musical tone generating apparatus for providinga performance effect of a plurality of musical instruments arranged in aperformance place, comprising: tone color designating means fordesignating a tone color corresponding to each musical instrumentarranged in the performance place; position information generating meansfor generating musical instrument position information corresponding toa position of each musical instrument arranged at the performance place;display means for displaying images of musical instruments at positionscorresponding to the musical instrument position information;information converting means for converting the musical instrumentposition information into musical tone parameter control information;musical tone generating means for generating musical tone signals;musical tone control means for controlling the musical tone parameterssignals in accordance with the musical tone parameter controlinformation; and output means for outputting a musical tones inaccordance with the controlled musical tone parameter outputted from themusical tone control means signals.
 2. A musical tone generatingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the musical instrument positioninformation comprises a value in a plane coordinate system and avariable which is determined by the value of the plane coordinates.
 3. Amusical tone generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theinformation converting means comprises a CPU (central processing unit)having a control program, a ROM (read only memory), and a RAM (readaccess memory) to convert the musical instrument position informationinto the musical tone parameter control information, this musical toneparameter control information being transferred to the musical tonecontrol means together with sound source control information.
 4. Amusical tone generating apparatus according to claim 1 wherein theposition information generating means comprises a display means fordisplaying a position of musical instruments corresponding to themusical instrument position information.
 5. A musical tone generatingapparatus according to claim 4 1wherein the display means comprises atransparent type touch panel and a display panel arranged behind thetouch panel for indicating the respective positions of the musicalinstruments.
 6. A musical tone generating apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the plane coordinate system is the x and y cartesiancoordinate system, and each of the musical instrument positions isindicated by x and y cartesian coordinates.
 7. A musical tone generatingapparatus according to claim 5, wherein the a surface of the displaymeans includes x and y coordinates thereon.
 8. A musical tone generatingapparatus according to claim 5, wherein the musical tone control meanscomprises a parameter control circuit for generating analog musical tonesignals output to the right and left channels.
 9. A musical tonegenerating apparatus according to claim 1A musical tone generatingapparatus for providing a performance effect of a plurality of musicalinstruments arranged in a performance place, comprising: tone colordesignating means for designating a tone color corresponding to eachmusical instrument arranged in the performance place; positioninformation generating means for generating musical instrument positioninformation corresponding to a position of each musical instrumentarranged at the performance place; information converting means forconverting the musical instrument position information into musical toneparameter control information; musical tone control means forcontrolling musical tone parameters in accordance with the musical toneparameter control information; and output means for outputting a musicaltone in accordance with the musical tone parameter outputted from themusical tone control means, wherein the musical tone control meanscomprises a low pass filter and wherein the musical tone parametercontrol information comprises: a first multiplication constant MP1 whichis directly proportional to a normalized value P_(y), in which thenormalized value P_(y) indicates a position of the a y coordinate in thestage, and the first multiplication constant MP1 determines a positionin a y direction of the stage; a fourth multiplication constant MP4which is inversely proportional to the normalized value P_(y), in whichthe fourth multiplication constant MP4 determines a magnitude of areverberative effect in the y direction of the stage; a filteringconstant CF which is directly proportional to a normalized value ofP_(y), in which the filtering constant CF determines a cut-off frequencyof a the low-pass filter; and a second multiplication constant MP2 whichis directly proportional to a normalized value P_(x) and a thirdmultiplication constant MP3 which is inversely proportional to thenormalized value P_(x), in which the second and third multiplicationconstants MP2 and MP3 determine the position of a sound image in theright and left directions an x direction of the stage, and thenormalized value of P_(x) indicates the position of the an x coordinateof the stage; and a fourth multiplication constant MP4 which isinversely proportional to the normalized value P _(y) , in which thefourth multiplication constant MP4 determines a magnitude of areverberative effect in the y direction of the stage.
 10. A musical tonegenerating apparatus comprising: select means for selecting a stageamong performance places; storage means for storing musical instrumentposition information which indicates the position of a musicalinstrument arranged on the stage, and the tone color corresponding tothe musical instrument; reading means for reading the musical instrumentposition information and the tone color from the storage means, in whichboth the musical instrument position information and the tone color areselected by the select means; display means for displaying images ofmusical instruments at positions corresponding to the musical instrumentposition information; information converting means for converting themusical instrument position information into musical tone parametercontrol information in response to a value of the plane coordinates anda variable which is determined by the value of the plane coordinates;musical tone control means for controlling musical tone parameters inaccordance with the musical tone parameter control information; andoutput means for outputting a musical tone in accordance with themusical tone parameter outputted from the musical tone control means.11. A musical tone generating apparatus according to claim 10, whereinthe select means comprises select elements having variable resistors.12. A musical tone generating apparatus according to claim 10, whereinthe storage means comprises a ROM.
 13. A musical tone generatingapparatus according to claim 10, wherein the reading means is controlledby a computer program stored in a CPU (central processing unit) to readthe musical instrument position information and the tone color from thestorage means.
 14. A musical tone generating apparatus according toclaim 10, wherein the select means comprises select elements havingvariable switches.
 15. A musical tone generating apparatus according toclaim 10, wherein the storage means comprises a floppy disk.
 16. A soundprocessing apparatus for moving a visual image position and a soundimage position together, the sound processing apparatus comprising:display means for displaying a visual image representing a sound source;sound generating means including a tone generator and a plurality ofloudspeakers for generating a sound corresponding to the sound source;position information generating means for generating sound sourceposition information; control means for controlling the display meansbased on the position information so that the display means displays thevisual image at a visual image position corresponding to the positioninformation and for controlling the sound generating means based on theposition information so that a sound image of the sound generated by thesound generating means is produced at a sound image positioncorresponding to the position information, wherein the visual imageposition and the sound image position are updated in response to changesin the position information.
 17. A sound processing apparatus accordingto claim 16, wherein the sound source is a musical instrument having agiven tone color.
 18. A sound processing apparatus according to claim16, wherein the position information generating means generates datarepresenting a x-y position in a plane coordinate system as the positioninformation.
 19. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 18,wherein the position information generating means includes a transparenttouch panel disposed in front of the display means, and the x-y positionis designated on the touch panel by a performer at the position of thevisual image.
 20. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 16,wherein the position information generating means includes a variableresistor and the position information is designated with the variableresistor by a performer.
 21. A sound processing apparatus according toclaim 16, further comprising: reverberation effect imparting means forimparting a reverberation effect, based on the position information, tothe sound generated by the sound generating means to impart a soundimage effect to the sound generated.
 22. A sound processing apparatusaccording to claim 21, wherein the reverberation effect imparting meanscontrols the amount of the reverberation effect to be imparted inresponse to the position information.
 23. A sound processing apparatusaccording to claim 21, wherein the sound generating means generates asound corresponding to data input through an external interface.
 24. Asound processing apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:sound modification means for modifying the sound generated by the soundgenerating means based on the position information so that the soundgenerating means generates the sound modified in response to theposition information, wherein the sound modification means modifies asound image effect in response to the position information.
 25. A soundprocessing apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the soundmodification means includes a low pass filter.
 26. A sound processingapparatus according to claim 25, wherein the sound modification meanscontrols the cut-off frequency of the low pass filter in response to theposition information.
 27. A sound processing apparatus for generating asound, the sound processing apparatus comprising: a display fordisplaying a visual image representing a sound source located in animage space; sound generating means including a tone generator forgenerating a sound corresponding to a sound characteristic of the soundsource; position information generating means for generating soundsource position information representing a desired display position;storage means for storing conversion characteristics; informationconverting means for converting the position information to soundparameters in accordance with the conversion characteristics stored inthe storage means; and control means for controlling the display basedon the position information so that the display displays the visualimage at a visual image position corresponding to the positioninformation, and for controlling the sound generating means based on theconverted sound parameters so that a sound image of the sound signalsgenerated by the sound generating means is produced at a sound sourceposition corresponding to the position information.
 28. A soundprocessing apparatus for generating a sound, the sound processingapparatus comprising: sound generating means including a tone generatorfor generating a sound corresponding to a sound characteristic of thesound source; storage means for storing sound source positioninformation; reading means for reading the sound source positioninformation from the storage means; control means for controlling thetone generator based on the sound source position information so that asound image of the sound signals generated by the tone generator isproduced at a position corresponding to the sound source positioninformation; and a display for displaying a visual image correspondingto the sound source in an image space, wherein the control meanscontrols the display so that the display displays the visual image at aposition corresponding to the sound source position information.
 29. Asound processing apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the storagemeans comprises a floppy disk which stores the sound source positioninformation.
 30. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 22,wherein the storage means further stores symbol information representingvisual images to be displayed, and the display means displays a visualimage based on the symbol information.
 31. A sound processing apparatusaccording to claim 22, wherein the visual image has a shape of acorresponding sound source.
 32. A sound processing apparatus accordingto claim 28, further comprising: position information generating meansfor generating position information in response to a player's operation,wherein the sound source position information is changed based on thegenerated position information, and the sound generating means and thedisplay are controlled based on the changed sound source positioninformation.
 33. A sound processing apparatus for generating a sound,the sound processing apparatus comprising: sound generating meansincluding a tone generator for generating a sound corresponding to asound characteristic of a sound source; a display for displaying avisual image corresponding to a sound source in an image space; storagemeans for storing sound source position information; reading means forreading the sound source position information from the storage means;control means for controlling the sound generating means based on thesound source position information so that a sound image of the soundgenerated by the sound generating means is produced at a positioncorresponding to the sound source position information; and positioninformation generating means for generating position information inresponse to a player's operation, wherein the sound source positioninformation is changed based on the generated position information, andthe control means controls the sound generating means and the displaymeans based on the changed sound source position information.
 34. Asound processing apparatus according to claim 33, wherein the positioninformation generating means generates data representing a x-y positionin a plane coordinate system as the position information.
 35. A soundprocessing apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the positioninformation generating means includes a transparent touch panel disposedon the display means, and the x-y position is designated on the touchpanel by a performer.
 36. A sound processing apparatus according toclaim 34, wherein the position information generating means includes avariable resistor, wherein the x-y position is responsive to changes inthe variable resistor.
 37. A sound processing apparatus for generating asound, processing apparatus comprising: a sound generator including atone generator and speakers generating a sound corresponding to a soundcharacteristic of a sound source; an external memory device which storessound source position information; a reading circuit which reads thesound source position information from the external memory device andwhich causes the sound source position information to be stored within alocal memory; a controller coupled to the sound generator and responsiveto the sound source position information, wherein the controllercontrols a position of a sound image of the second generated by thesound generator in response to the sound source position information; adisplay for displaying a visual image corresponding to a sound sourcelocated in an image space; and a position information generator whichgenerates position information in response to a player's operation,wherein the sound source position information is changed based on thegenerated position information, and the controller controls the soundgenerator based on the changed sound source position information.
 38. Asound processing apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the externalmemory device is a floppy disk and the reading circuit is a floppy diskcontrol unit.
 39. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 37,further comprising: a display which displays a visual imagecorresponding to a sound source located in an image space; wherein thecontroller is responsive to the sound source position information sothat the visual image appears at a position corresponding to the soundsource position information.
 40. A sound processing apparatus accordingto claim 39, wherein the external memory device stores symbolinformation representing visual images to be displayed, and the visualimage is displayed based on the symbol information read out by thereading out means.
 41. A method of moving a visual image position and asound image position simultaneously, the method comprising the steps of:displaying a visual image representing a sound source located in animage space on a display; generating a sound corresponding to a soundsource; generating position information in response to player control;controlling the display based on the position information so that thedisplay produces a visual image corresponding to a sound source at avisual position corresponding to the position information; andcontrolling a sound generator which includes a tone generator andspeakers based on the position information so that the sound generatorproduces a sound image corresponding to the sound source at a soundimage position corresponding to the position information; wherein thevisual image position and the sound image position are updated inresponse to changes in the position information.
 42. A method of soundprocessing comprising the steps of: displaying a visual imagerepresenting a sound source located in an image space on a display;generating sounds with a tone generator which corresponds to the soundsource; reading conversion characteristics from a storage device;generating sound source position information corresponding to a desireddisplay position; converting the position information to soundparameters in accordance with the characteristics read from the storagedevice; controlling the display based upon the position information sothat the display displays the visual image at a visual image positioncorresponding to the position information; and controlling the tonegenerator based on the converted sound parameters so that the tonegenerator produces a sound image at a sound source positioncorresponding to the position information.
 43. A method of soundprocessing comprising the steps of: generating a sound signal inresponse to a designation and generating a sound based upon the soundsignal corresponding to a sound characteristic of a sound source;storing sound source position information into an external storage;reading out the sound source position information from the externalstorage so that the sound source position information is stored within alocal memory; controlling a sound generator which includes a tonegenerator and speakers in accordance with the locally stored soundsource position information so that the sound generator generates asound at a sound image position corresponding to the sound sourceposition information; and displaying a visual image representing a soundsource located in an image space on a display; generating positioninformation in response to a player's operation and changing the soundsource position information based on the generated position information,and wherein said controlling step controls the sound generator based onthe changed sound source position information.
 44. A method of soundprocessing according to claim 43, the method further comprising thesteps of: controlling a display in accordance with the sound sourceposition information so that a visual image displayed by the display isprovided at a position corresponding to the sound source positioninformation.
 45. A method of sound processing according to claim 44, themethod further comprising the step of: storing symbol informationrepresenting visual images to be displayed into the external storage,wherein the visual image is displayed based on the symbol information.46. A sound apparatus for moving a visual image position and a soundimage position together, the sound processing apparatus comprising: adisplay that displays a visual image corresponding to a sound sourcelocated in an image space; a sound generator having a tone generator andplurality of loudspeakers for generating a sound corresponding to thesound source; a position information generator that generates positioninformation; a controller that controls the display based on theposition information so that the display displays the visual image at avisual position corresponding to the position information and forcontrolling the sound generator based on the position information sothat a sound image of the sound generated by the sound generator isproduced at a sound position corresponding to the position information;wherein the visual image and the sound image are moved together inresponse to changes in the position information.
 47. A sound processingapparatus according to claim 46, further comprising: a reverberationeffect imparting circuit that imparts a reverberation effect, based onthe position information, to the sound generated by the sound generator.48. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 46, furthercomprising a sound modifier that modifies the sound generated by thesound generator based on the position information so that the soundgenerator generates the sound modified in response to the positioninformation.
 49. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 46,wherein the sound source is a musical instrument having a given tonecolor.
 50. A sound processing apparatus according to claim 46 whereinthe position information generator generates data representing a x-yposition in a plane coordinate system as the position information.
 51. Asound processing apparatus according to claim 50, wherein the positioninformation generator includes a transparent touch panel disposed infront of the display, and the x-y position is designated on the touchpanel by a performer at the position of the visual image.
 52. A soundprocessing apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the positioninformation generator includes a variable resistor and the positioninformation is designated with the variable resistor by a performer. 53.A sound processing apparatus comprising: a sound generator including atone generator and speakers that generates a sound corresponding to asound source; a display that displays a visual image corresponding to asound source located in an image space; a position information generatorthat generates sound source position information corresponding todisplay position; a storage medium that stores conversioncharacteristics; an information converter that converts the positioninformation to sound parameters in accordance with the conversioncharacteristics stored in the storage medium; and a sound image positioncontroller that controls the sound generator based on the convertedsound parameters so that the sound image of the sound generated by thesound generator is produced at a sound source position corresponding tothe position information.
 54. A sound processing apparatus comprising: asound generator including a tone generator and speakers that generates asound corresponding to a sound characteristic of a sound source; astorage means that stores sound source position information; a readerthat reads the sound source position information from the storagemedium; a controller that controls the sound generator based on thesound source position information so that the sound image of the soundgenerated by the second generator is produced at a positioncorresponding to the sound source position information; and a displaythat displays a visual image corresponding to the sound source, whereinthe controller controls the display to display the visual image at aposition corresponding to the sound source position information.
 55. Asound processing apparatus comprising: a sound generator including atone generator driving a plurality of loudspeakers with a sound signal;an external memory device which stores sound source positioninformation; a reading circuit which reads the sound source positioninformation from the external memory device; a controller coupled to thesound generator and responsive to the sound source position information,wherein the controller alters the position of the sound image generatedby the sound generator in response to changes in the sound sourceposition information; and a display that displays a visual imagecorresponding to a sound source located in an image space.
 56. A methodof sound processing comprising the steps of: generating a soundcorresponding to a sound characteristic of a sound source; storing soundsource position information; reading out the stored sound sourceposition information; controlling a sound generator which includes atone generator and speakers in accordance with the sound positioninformation so that the sound generator produces a sound image at aposition corresponding to the sound source position information; anddisplaying a visual image corresponding to the sound source, whereinsaid controlling step causes the displaying step to display the visualimage at a position corresponding to the sound source positioninformation.
 57. A processing apparatus comprising: a display thatdisplays a visual image corresponding to a sound source located in animage space; a sound generator having a tone generator and a pluralityof loudspeakers for generating a sound corresponding to the soundsource; a position information generator that generates positioninformation; and a controller that controls the display based on theposition information so that the display displays the visual image at avisual position corresponding to the position information and controlsthe sound generator based on the position information so that a soundimage of the sound generated by the sound generator is produced at asound position corresponding to the visual position.
 58. A soundprocessing apparatus according to claim 57, further comprising: aconverter that converts the position information into the soundparameter information.
 59. Sound processing apparatus comprising: adesignating device that designates a plurality of sound sources; adisplay that displays a plurality of visual images, located in an imagespace, each of which represents one of the plurality sound sources; asound generator including a tone generator and a plurality ofloudspeakers that generates a plurality of sounds each of whichcorresponds to one of the plurality of sound sources; a positioninformation generator that generates position information for each ofthe plurality of sound sources; and a controller that controls thedisplay based on the position information so that the display displaysthe plurality of visual images at visual positions corresponding to theposition information and that controls the sound generator based on theposition information so that sound images of the sounds generated by thesound generator are produced at sound positions corresponding to theposition information.
 60. Sound processing apparatus comprising: adisplay having a display panel that displays a plurality of visualimages, located in an image space, each of which has a shaperepresenting one of a plurality of sound sources; a sound generatorincluding a tone generator and a plurality of loudspeakers thatgenerates a plurality of sounds each of which corresponds to one of theplurality of sound sources; a device with which a player provides amoving operation input for each of the plurality of sound sources; and acontroller that controls the display so that the display moves theplurality of visual images in response to the moving operation and thatcontrols the sound generator so that sound images of the soundsgenerated by the sound generator are moved in response to the movingoperation.
 61. Sound processing apparatus comprising: a selecting devicethat selects a performance space; sound generator including a tonegenerator that generates a sound; an acoustic effector that imparts tothe sound an acoustic effect corresponding to the selected performancespace; a display; a controller that controls the display so that thedisplay displays a visual image representing the selected performancespace.
 62. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 61, wherein thedisplay is controlled to display a name of the selected performancespace.
 63. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 61, wherein thesound generator simultaneously generates a plurality of sounds having aplurality of tone colors, and the display is controlled to display aplurality of visual images representing the plurality of tone colors.64. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 63, wherein thedisplay is controlled to display names of the plurality of tone colors.65. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 63, wherein theacoustic effector imparts a reverberative effect to the sound asacoustic effect.
 66. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 63,wherein the acoustic effector imparts to the sound an effect, in which asound image of the sound is produced at a desired position, as theacoustic effect.
 67. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 66,wherein the acoustic effector is controlled by the controller to movethe position of the sound image.
 68. Sound processing apparatuscomprising: a storage medium that stores a set of sound information andacoustic effect information for each of a plurality of performancespaces; a selecting device that selects one of the plurality ofperformance spaces; a display which displays information about theselected performance space and/or sound; a sound generator including atone generator that generates a sound based on the sound informationwhich corresponds to the selected performance space and is read out fromthe storage medium; and an acoustic effector that imparts an acousticeffect to the sound based on the acoustic effect information whichcorresponds to the selected performance space and is read out from thestorage medium.
 69. Sound processing apparatus according to claim 68,wherein the storage medium stores reverberative information as theacoustic effect information, and the acoustic effector imparts areverberation to the sound based on the reverberative information. 70.Sound processing apparatus according to claim 68, wherein the storagemedium stores position information as the acoustic effect information,and the acoustic effector imparts to the sound an effect in which asound image of the sound is produced at a position corresponding to theposition information read out as the acoustic effect information. 71.Sound processing apparatus according to claim 70, wherein the apparatusfurther comprises a position designating device which designates adesirable position in response to a player's operation, and, when one ofthe plurality of performance spaces is selected by the selecting device,the sound image of the sound is produced at a position corresponding tothe position information which corresponds to the selected performancespace, and, when the desired position is designated by the positiondesignating device, the sound image of the sound is produced at aposition corresponding to the desired position.